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Sunday, December 1, 2013

A Cushion For Christmas Blog Hop Kicks Off Now!

I hope you all have your Christmas lists ready to tick off! Because the
Cushion For Christmas Blog Hop starts now - and over the next two weeks,
you WILL get lots of inspiration for lots of cushion-y gifts
this festive season! Let's kick it off here…

I'm going to share with you all the cushions I have made this year......so far.... I can guarantee that each and every one of them took less than a day! Cushions truly are the projects I turn to when I need a quick and easy gift, and something that will be treasured and looked at. I'm hoping these will get your imagination bursting!

Although a cushion can be a small gift, it can certainly pack a punch with its delivery..... Much to my horror and confusion - not one of these is in my house. In fact, I am yet to make a cushion for our very own home!

I've included the links to the original posts of these Cushions, so you will find more information about the process of making them there, as well as links to any tutorials I used.

This was made for my teenage god-daughter, who loves everything "Night
before Christmas". She is not a flowers and roses kind of gal, so I
went with the black background and was able to pull this together with a
bunch of Terrain scraps. She absolutely adored it!

Another paper pieced project, using the same bag of Terrain scraps. I think this was actually my second ever attempt at paper piecing, and I was hooked. This is a good example of how fabric placement can change a pattern. And this cushion now resides at my Mum's house!

The dresden cushion was a gift for my brother in law and his fiance for their engagement. This was my first foray in to free motion quilting on a cushion. THIS is what gave me the "uh-huh moment" for how beneficial cushion covers could be in honing my FMQ skills!

A gorgeous little girl gift for my two year old god daughter in Japan. Another "scrap" project, it was my first attempt at free motion quilting flowers. By fussy cutting the different Little Red scenes, it ends up looking a little like a story board. You could use any kind of fussy cuts to make up a story on a cushion.

The mash up was another gift in a hurry project. I had no idea what I was going to do with these prints, but knew my sick work mate would love them. There is a tutorial for this on the original post in the link above. FABULOUS and super quick project!

Personalised cushion covers are awesome for kids! Kristy @ Quiet Play has great paper piecing patterns HERE with both upper and lower case letters. Find out a child's favourite colours or theme and you have an instant hit! This one was for a One Direction fan - the original post has more photos with the British theme on the back.

STARGAZINGAnd this one? Well, it has to be the simplest and quickest cushion cover to put together of all! It's literally a basic wonky star surrounded by a solid colour. Then, it's all about the FMQ! It is also a very personalised cover in its own way. There are five stars in total - the largest is for my friend's husband who was killed last year, and the four smaller stars and for herself and her three children.

PAPER PIECED STARWell - this was the cushion that started a blog hop! It was whilst loving every single part of making this that I decided more cushions had to be made and gifted this Christmas! I originally made this to gift to my son's teacher, however, a friend loved it so much that she bought it! Looks like I have another cushion to make......So - there's just a few ideas to get you started! I've made two new cushions for this blog hop, and will be back to share them and a couple of tutorials. Now, go and grab that Christmas gift list, and get ready to fill it up! Here's the schedule for the coming weeks...

Saturday 14th December - Round up of Blog Hop and link up YOUR projects!Wednesday 18th December - Winners Announced! Remember - this is all about YOU TOO! I would love you to get involved and I have some wonderful sponsors on board with fabulous prizes up for grabs! Take in all the hop stops this coming fortnight, and make sure you sew up a storm of cushions! Then from the 14th of December, the linky will open up for you to share your projects! And my esteemed bloggers and I will announce the winners on the 18th of December!

If you are joining in, feel free to grab my button over there
on the right of my blog. You don't have to have a blog to join in, if
you would like to email your finished projects, you are more than
welcome to! I have also set up a Flickr group for those interested - HERE.Go on - what are you waiting for???

This is such a great idea! No blog but I uploaded to Flickr....my "cheats" cushion....a feather (always) insert is tightly covered with Commercial prequilted wadding from spotty etc,(no opening) than a cover made with a stand-out interior designer hard wearing thicker fabric like Marimekko and emphasise the back opening (concealed zipper) with 2 co-ordinating quilters weight fabrics . . . and always do a piped or bobble edge around cushion. If the cushion insert is 50cm (say), then make the cover 48cm.....a tighter cushion is more luxurious to look at. Not strictly "Patchwork or Quilting" . . . . but still a cushion! Cant wait to see them all in the blog hop.